Hi Dok,
There is nothing contentious about acknowledging the essentially modern outlook of Jazz. You are absolutely correct about that, and I think many, if not most people in the music would see it that way. Certainly many of its most important contributors (i.e. Coleman Hawkins, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, etc.) were fierce modernists that strived to remain part of the creative flow. However, I would never say that Thelonius Monk's music is dated, nor much of Miles Davis' oeuvre, nor that of many others. Their art is essentially timeless, perhaps the only useful definition of the word "classic" as it applies to Jazz.
According to an old book on Jazz by Marshall Stearns, the word Jazz is derived from the word Jass, which was a slang word in the New Orleans red light district that meant screwing.
There is nothing contentious about acknowledging the essentially modern outlook of Jazz. You are absolutely correct about that, and I think many, if not most people in the music would see it that way. Certainly many of its most important contributors (i.e. Coleman Hawkins, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, etc.) were fierce modernists that strived to remain part of the creative flow. However, I would never say that Thelonius Monk's music is dated, nor much of Miles Davis' oeuvre, nor that of many others. Their art is essentially timeless, perhaps the only useful definition of the word "classic" as it applies to Jazz.
According to an old book on Jazz by Marshall Stearns, the word Jazz is derived from the word Jass, which was a slang word in the New Orleans red light district that meant screwing.